Key Vocabulary

Essential Vocabulary

Aesthete- A person who appreciates arts and beauty.

Aigrette- A headdress made of white Egret feathers and elaborately decorated

Avarice- Extreme greed for material possessions and wealth

Baroque- A detailed movement in art, music and decoration during the 17^th and 18^th century following Mannerism.

Bier- A movable frame on which a coffin sits in before burial to be carried to the grave.

Billets-doux- Love Letters

Carillon- Bells playing on an automatic mechanism attached to a keyboard

Carnal- physical, usually sexual, needs and desires

Catafalque- Wooden framework decorating or supporting the coffin of a distinguished person
Chamber music-Simplistic form of orchestral music played by a small ensemble such as a string quartet.

Chthonic- An inhabitant of or related to the underworld

Dolorous- feeling or expressing great sorry or distress

Eldritch- Weird, sinister or ghostly

Enfer- French for ‘Hell’

Florid- A red or flushed complexion but also used to describe something excessively complex and intricate

Fugue- Musical connotations where a small melody is started by one and taken up successively by others. (A round) Also describes the loss of awareness of identity

Gourmand- Someone who is gluttonous, French for greedy

Immolated- Sacrificed or killed, specifically by burning

Importunate- persistent to the point of annoyance.

Interdiction- the military act of delaying, disrupting or destroying enemy forces/supplies en route to the battlefield

Jinn- An Arab or Muslim spirit believed to possess humans and appear in human or animal form. They are intelligent but lower than angels

Leonine- Resembling a Lion

Lisle- Specially black cotton thread specific to stockings

Loge- A private enclosure or box in the theatre

Loquacity- Quality of talking a lot.

Lustratory- relating to the ceremony of purification

Missal- A book containing the Catholic mass texts.

Minimalist -A movement in art and music but also someone who takes minor and passive actions.

Nacreous- iridescent, luminous and changing colour

Parure- A collection of jewels intended to be worn as a set

Rococo -18^th Century Continental Europe designs of décor popular for asymmetrical patterns involving motifs and scrollwork

Rictus- A fixed grimace or grin

Sacerdotal- relating or priests or the doctrine the empowers priests

Sadomasochistic- The derivation of pleasure from the physical or mental suffering of oneself or others

Sardonic- Grinning in a mocking or cynical way

Trousseau- The clothes and linen collected by a bride for her marriage

Vellum- Parchment made from the skin of a lamb or calf

Vicuna- a species of llama in South America known for its silky wool

Viscera- Internal organs, especially in the main body cavities

Voluptuary- A person dedicated to luxury or sensual pleasure